Fortunately we've made some progress in terms of rights of the accused in the last 70 years. It's stories like these that provide strong arguments against the death penalty.

But the pendulum does swing the other way, to weekend furloughs for murderers sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.[1] That particular individual played a big role in the 1988 US Presidential election.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Horton